To Follow in the Footsteps of an Artist
by UchihaMadara2412
Summary: Deidara, after realizing that his Art would die with him if he left the mortal plane, decided that he wanted a disciple to follow on in his work. Too bad that this disciple ends up being our favourite ninja Naruto.


To follow in the footsteps of an Artist

Chapter 1

Yo!

I was reading through my data book one day and I came up with the idea for this. This is likely going to be a crack fic as I cannot, in good faith, write this with a serious tone... And it will flow better with humor at every turn.

This has probably been done before but I haven't read any yet so... I hope this is kinda original!

A few facts before I begin.

Akatsuki aren't really going after the Bijū, the people who know about the group merely think so.

Tobi is still Obito

This is based just after a month after Naruto's training trip starts.

Um...hmm...

I don't think there is anything else but if you notice. Let me know please!

Thanks.

\- Madara

* * *

Deidara hated stairs.

Really! He did! Those Art forsaken obstacles stood in the way of a new future... And there were 467 of them! He counted.

Looking up into the weird tower that Leader-sama lived in made Deidara scowl in annoyance. What a waste of time stairs were, alongside doors and running, who had the time to partake in the tiring task of climbing up stairs, moving and opening doors like a plebeian?

Luckily for him, his glorious Art could have other uses other than to become the beautiful masterpiece that was his Art!

Because true art... Is an explosion! A brief flitting moment of brilliance that lights up the surrounding area! Instantaneous reaction! That! Was Art!

But nobody else could see that! They thought that art is just paintings or, sculptures or... Or shitty pieces of fancy writing. No!

The only person that could understand true art - Not really though - was Sasori-Danna.

But Sasori-Danna thought that Art was eternal. Like his girly dolls that he never seemed to run out of. There was always one more doll in reserve.

So in his quest for the ultimate Art, Deidara was going to take up a Disciple. Because every great Artist needed a disciple, how was Art going to be passed on and developed otherwise. His Art would never stagnate and fall into nonexistence! Never!

Digging out a lump of clay and moulding it in his hand mouths, Deidara thought about who he wanted as a disciple. Not just anyone would do, they had to be young and moldable - Like clay before you put it in the kiln - once all the moulding had been done you started with the detail and then you bake your clay to make it perfect. The finishing touches like paint and polish come after and Tada! Art!

His disciple had to be powerful as well, to handle the... Bakuton.. Fuck! He needed his disciple to have Bakuton. He certainly wasn't going to go to Iwa for a disciple Nuh huh. The Bastards weren't worthy of this glorious pursuit for perfection!

And revenge against Itachi.

Getting on his clay owl and flying up, Deidara thought more on how to have a Bakuton disciple without going to Iwa.

Hmm... This was harder than he thought... Maybe Orochi-Teme could help? Traitorous bastard that he was, the snakey guy did know all about Kekkai Genkai. Orochimaru could do an experiment of some sort to give someone Bakuton couldn't he? He'd have to go and ask.

Ah! Here he was! Leader-sama's office.

Stepping onto the tongue sticking out with ease, Deidara strode into the open space without a care in the world.

"Oi! Leader-sama! I have a request!"

A swirly chair that looked real comfy turned round to reveal an orange haired man with strange purple ringed eyes. The man's face was covered in black bar like piercings across his nose and thick bands up the entire length of his ear. That wasn't even most of them!

"Hm?" The young voice grunted, his purple eyes scouring the paper he was holding in front of him .

"I would like some time off." The man looked up with an emotionless face. "So I can start my search for a disciple, yeah."

The leader's eyebrow rose. "Disciple?"

Deidara nodded vigorously.

The Leader peered curiously at the blond man, taking in the fidgeting hands and the impatient shuffles of sandaled feet.

"And why would you want a disciple, Deidara?"

The Artist immediately responded. "To pass on my Art, Leader-sama. I hope that sometime in the coming years that I will achieve my dream of becoming Art when I die. I want to pass on my Art before that happens, yeah."

The oranges haired man leaned back on his chair and peered out into the endless rain outside. "Where will you appropriate this... Disciple from?"

"Yeah..." Deidara rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and blushed a pale pink. "That's the problem I'm dealing with now, Leader-sama. I don't want one from Iwa but no one else has the Bakuton needed for my technique."

"Hmm." Leader tilted his head. "Have you found a solution?"

The blond man paced the length of the room, nervously tugging on his long ponytail with one hand and moulding clay animals with the other.

"Well?"

Deidara stopped in front of the desk and looked down at his feet nervously. "I had an idea, but I don't know if it would be suitable with my... Affiliations."

The purple eyed man just stared.

"I-I was thinking about... O-orochimaru, Leader-sama. With the traitor's work in Kekkai Genkai and human biology, I though that maybe he could give someone Bakuton... Like with that Mokuton guy in Konohagakure Itachi told us about, yeah."

The leaders eyebrows rose in surprise. "I'm surprised that you thought about this so thoroughly, Deidara."

Deidara shook his head in embarrassment."Yeah? I really wanted a disciple, so I tried to think of everything I could."

The leader of Ame nodded and looked down into his clasped hands. "I think, we have already narrowed down our list of candidates to a few already. Do you have any other conditions to add?"

"They have to be young." Deidara said after a while, consulting his mental list. "So they can be moulded properly, Yeah?"

Leader looked down onto his desk and shuffled a few files around, picking up a slim folder from the bottom. "Not many could survive the operation that you are planning Deidara. Fortunately, I have the perfect one for you." The man handed over the file and allowed Deidara to have a look through, slanted blue eyes widening as he progressed.

"Really? _Him?_ But Leader-sama-"

"No." He held up a hand. "You can have him, my only condition is that he joins the Akatsuki when he is S-Rank."

Deidara broke out into a wide grin. "Thank you! Leader-sama!" The blond threw the file back onto the desk and ran to the open terrace that he entered through, leaping off the edge and into a free fall, his clay bird catching him just before he hit the ground, sweeping the bomb user off into the horizon. A mad laugh following his departure.

The file, so carelessly thrown, lay open on the clear desk. All that could be discerned from the distance of the cliffhanger camera was a picture of a blond boy. The boy had blue eyes and whisker marks on his cheeks.

* * *

An explosion ripped through the underground hideout, making loose pieces of soil fall to the stone floors and for some walls to develop some cracks.

A man with long dark hair and snakelike yellow eyes, looked up at his crumbling ceiling and his thin mouth twitched into a small smirk.

 _'I wonder what Deidara wants?'_ Orochimaru thought, making a vague motion to one of his minions to open the door.

Kabuto and Orochimaru's newest addition Sasuke, walked into the room with curious faces.

"Orochimaru-sama?" The white haired man asked?

Orochimaru merely stared at the door, ignoring his most loyal of minions in favour of his nice door that was opening to admit a blond man clothed in a black cloak adorned with red clouds outlined with white lines.

"Deidara-kun!" Orochimaru hissed. "How nice to see you!"

Deidara looked around cautiously, observing the entirety of the open room he found himself in. His observations paused when he caught sight of the Mini-Itachi standing next to Sasori-Danna's spy. But he continued walking forward though, drawing out a file from the endless depths of his cloak.

"Orochimaru-teme. I have a proposition for you." He flung the folder over to Orochimaru, the extra distance covered by a bird carrying the file when it began to drop. "A personal one, Yeah?"

The snake summoner caught the file expertly, ducking under the small explosion that detonated as soon as he took the letter from the birds talons. A quick flick through made the Snake Sannin's eyes widen and a wide grin take over his pale face.

"Oho, Deidara-kun!" The man's tongue came out to lick the edges of his thin lips. "I didn't expect you to follow my footsteps."

Deidara slowly placed his hands into his clay pouches. "Can you get it done?" He scowled.

Orochimaru hummed and tutted at the former Iwa nin. "But of course, Deidara-kun! You underestimate my capabilities, I trust that you will supply the samples needed?" Orochimaru looked up at the Akatsuki member with a gleam in his slitted eyes.

Deidara nodded. "I'll also get the boy here, shouldn't be too hard, yeah."

Orochimaru nodded absently, still leafing through the paperwork. "Samples first."

"Humph!"

* * *

"My spy's have informed me that they are just off the border of Cha no Kuni. With your bird, you should catch up in a day or two. Wind conditions not taking into account of course."

The blond turned back to look at the man, "Sounds legit." He replied. "You better be ready by the time I get back."

"Of course!" Orochimaru waved the man's concerns off. "You just get the brat."

An off-white bird took into the skies, leaving behind the gathering of people blown away from his takeoff.

"Who was that, Orochimaru?" Sasuke drawled, his face drawn into a scowl.

Orochimaru looked into the sunrise lit sky and smirked.

"An Artist, Sasuke-kun."

* * *

Deidara flew for miles and miles. Passing over hundreds of little villages and massive farms extending over much of the warm land.

As Orochimaru had said, It took a day to reach the location where his disciple and his disciple's false teacher were camping out.

It was a quaint little camp, with two tents and a small fire going. Deidara could see with his thermal vision on his scope, that his targets were sitting next to the fire and seemingly talking about something. Perfect.

Deidara drew out a small lump of clay and formed it into a spider, dropping it through the air it landed on the Jiraiya's face and blowed up. The man had substituted before the explosion went off though.

That was part of the plan.

He swooped down and nabbed the blond haired boy just staring at the place where the sannin had just vacated.

The boy struggled but Deidara just placed the boy in front of him and dragged him down to sit in his lap, the boy going still at the arms wrapped around him. Luckily he could give a set of coordinates to his bird so it would keep flying, leaving him to focus on the quivering runt sitting on his legs.

"Hmm?" He hummed, peering about his new Disciple. "You'll do just fine, yeah."

The boy looked back at him and tried to move away once he had noticed the red clouds on his cloak.

"Oi! You're with the Akatsuki, ain't you?" The pre-teen shouted, succeeding in pointing right in Deidara's face.

"Yeah!" He replied. "But this isn't Akatsuki business. It's personal stuff, yeah?"

The boy, Naruto, looked confused. "Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Naruto looked taken aback and peered down to the ground. Well, as much as he could when he was sitting on someone's lap like a child would do. He wasn't a child!

"Take me back to Ero-sennin! He's supposed to be training me!"

"Nope." Deidara grinned.

Naruto huffed and tried to turn away, but couldn't. "Whaddya want anyway?" He demanded.

"For you to be my disciple, yeah. Follow in my footsteps as an Artist. I can train you, in really cool and powerful stuff, yeah."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows. "Artist?"

Deidara grinned again, time for his indoctrination to begin.

"Your first lesson is this..." Deidara held out a little bird made of clay in his hand. Naruto looked confused at the little bird, as unwilling as he was to learn from this crazy asshole he had no choice.

Deidara tipped his hand and let the bird fall, the clay expanding as it fell further away.

"Art..." He held up a half Ram seal and grinned a mad grin, blue eyes gleaming. "Is an Explosion! Katsu!'

The small bird, which looked harmless when Naruto first saw it, suddenly exploded mid fall, causing a spectacular explosion that spread for a mile or so.

"So, what do you think? Do you want to be able to do that?" Deidara asked the awestruck boy.

Naruto nodded as fast as he could, eyes still half blind with spots dancing in his vision.

"Yeah!"

* * *

Like? Hate?


End file.
